coffee

Still roaming around the Philippines… living the seemingly endless cycle of checking out of hotels, boarding planes, complaining about the traffic and trying to jam as much work into a day as humanly possible. At this point, spending two or more consecutive nights in the same hotel is starting to bear a powerful resemblance to waking up in your own bed and Cebu Airport is quickly beginning to feel like a second home.

This cheap hat's been getting a lot of air time lately -- an inevitable phenomenon that tends to happen to accessories that take sun blocking to a whole new level, simply by being able to simultaneously moonlight as dirty hair camouflage. Not any worse than parading around in a scarf worn as a skirt (which happens to also make an excellent travel blanket) or a pajama top as a shirt. Call it gross or effective -- there seems to be a limit to the number of weeks one can live out of a duffle bag without blurring the fine line between sleepwear and daywear. Think I'll just call it the art of traveling light.

Meanwhile I'm in beautiful Madrid for a long weekend. Rented a matchbox sized apartment in the heart of the city for a few nights, which I am rapidly falling in love with.

And speaking of fresh air… not a fan of synthetic air fresheners. On top of that I wasn't blessed with a very girly taste in general so most fruity concoctions, even when a 100% natural are still somewhat invasive to my senses.

Do love the smell of books, leather, trees, vanilla, wood, saunas (eucalyptus), Asian temples, coffee, fire, babies, rain, lemons and honey though (the list goes on)… and once in a blue moon I do come across the perfect bottle of organic wholesomeness that's just right for my world.

so for the unlikely event that someone's

got the same preferences as me, here are my

To me, these smell like good blues sounds… raw, calm and soulful.

If you also prefer natural scents, please do point me to any good woody or leathery organic finds. A hint of vanilla is always a bonus.

Lost count of how many days we've been here (in Paris) (must be three? four?) but I know we stayed in for dinner every night so far.

Unbelievable just how good bread & cheese can be. Can't complain about the wine either -- and I am not even a wine-person.

Our rental.

(Guess it wouldn't have killed me to make the bed before taking a picture.)

Have always loved big European cities and the sense of comfortable solitude I feel in an endless sea of people. Connected and separate at the same time. A bit hard to explain -- and probably not necessary. Think I'll just post some photos (sorry about the low resolution) and stop narrating, way too spent for words.

Not much to blog about -- a lot of running around/errands these last couple of days, engaging in conversations with tellers, UPS personnel, gas station attendants and baristas about the unseasonal temperatures we've been having lately. After those -10°F Mongolia-mornings I don't actually feel entitled to complain though, so my participation in weather-bashing is pretty much confined to courtesy nod-alongs. In other news, and it's probably not helping jet lag matters much at night, my friend Ernie, god bless his heart, loaned me season 4 of the Big Bang Theory. How did I manage to forget how good this show is! Smokey loves it when I watch TV -- which is almost never. I think he generally likes the idea of me sitting still… almost as much as he loves the sound of me opening the fridge.

p/s: THOUGHTS ON RED LIPSTICK

Probably no one can tell the difference, but it feels like I am a whole other person on the rare day (today) that I wear red lipstick. Somehow, 360 or so days a year, red lipstick is just not for me. Looks great on other ladies though (minus the the all-over-the-teeth and the bleeding-outside-the-confinements-of-one's-lips variations of course) -- so every once in a while I give it a new try.

Love the major time-saving factor, literally zero eye-make needed, no pencil sharpening, no brush cleaning, and somehow it still manages to yield the illusion that the offender put in some effort before leaving the house. That alone could help me become a convert if only I could learn to love the look. Or if I didn't have to reapply it after every sip of coffee.